The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) is concerned that the general impression left by FDA during the recent investigation on nutritional supplements tainted with anabolic steroids is that the agency is not capable of taking any action against the widespread distribution of these nutritional supplements.

According to Michael McGuffin, AHPA’s president, AHPA disagrees, and believes that FDA has all of the authority it needs to shut down the marketers of any such product.

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) sent a letter to FDA urging the agency to adapt its current and successful enforcement program against fraudulent 2009 H1N1 products and apply it to illegal synthetic steroid products.

The letter cited the current program implemented by FDA for addressing fake 2009 H1N1 influenza products. It includes issuing a Warning letter as a form of their direct enforcement action and a list of manufacturers who received warning letters from FDA, which is posted on their website. AHPA also added that the fraudulent claims have now been removed from the FDA product list.

AHPA addressed the letter to Michael Levy, Esq., director of the Division of New Drugs and Labeling Compliance at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and to Roberta Wagner, director of the Office of Compliance at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

From Natural Products Insider:

The AHPA letter also noted FDA’s testimony identified “several possible enforcement outcomes” against any product that contains a synthetic steroid, and FDA did not need to identify in its testimony “a category of marketed synthetic steroidsfor which there is no possible enforcement outcome, because under current law, except with respect to approved new drugs, all such marketing is unlawful.”